Within that historic investment MISO approved Long Range Transmission Plan Tranche 2.1, which will expand transmission capacity across the Midwest (MISO’s footprint stretches across 15 states, from North Dakota down to Louisiana, Mississippi, and a small portion of Eastern Texas). This planning process took several years and included thousands of hours of work within MISO and with MISO stakeholders.
MISO calculated the benefits over 20 years, but the infrastructure that will be built will be in operation for at least 40 years, meaning the benefits to consumers are greater than what was calculated through the MISO planning process. The Tranche 2.1 package will result in a more reliable power grid and will save customers $76 -110 million in avoided outages (avoided outages = keeping the power on).
MISO estimates that up to 130,000 jobs will be created building the transmission lines, including direct construction jobs and indirect jobs created at local hospitality and retail businesses. Tranche 2.1 will also create 746,000 jobs building solar, wind, and battery storage projects, as the Tranche 2.1 transmission lines will enable these renewable energy and storage projects to proceed to the construction phase and connect to the grid.
Louisiana ratepayers won’t see benefits from Tranche 2.1 – but there is a silver lining. Tranche 1 (approved by MISO in 2022) and Tranche 2.1 will bring massive benefits (in the form of bill savings, jobs, emissions reductions) to Midwest consumers – which means Tranche 3, the planning process for MISO South states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and eastern Texas), will also bring significant benefits to consumers into our region when approved!
Source: MISO MTEP24 ReportLong Range Transmission Planning (LRTP) will enable large amounts of renewable energy to connect to the grid, bringing us closer to an affordable, decarbonized electric grid, reducing our dependence on costly fossil fuel-generated electricity, and reducing emissions associated with fossil fuel-generated electricity.
